How to Monitor Your Competition
Posted by aonenetworks On December 26, 2012
Monitoring your competition isn’t as important as it may seem initially. Scoping them out and knowing what you’re up against when you enter the niche is important, but beyond that you don’t really need to worry about your competition that much. However, if you’re the worrying sort and you want to make sure that they’re not outdoing you in any way, then there are some easy and quick ways to see what they’re doing to bring success to their companies.
Sign Up for Their Newsletter
One of the quickest and sneakiest ways to keep track of your competition is to simply follow them via their newsletter. Generally, there’s a link on their Facebook page or website to sign up to receive email from a company. If there’s no way to actually sign up for the newsletter, you can make a small purchase so that you’re classified as a new customer and you can start receiving the newsletter. Be forewarned, though – use an email that isn’t easily identified as you so you don’t get blacklisted.
Explore Their Website
Though they’ll probably see you stop by their website when you explore, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t. Check out their websites and see what they may be doing wrong. It’s possible they may not have any contact information available, or in some cases, you may find typos or other errors that you now know you should avoid. You can also get tons of information on their new products or services or pricing.
Call Them Up
Of course, when you call them, you shouldn’t act like you own a company. Pose as a potential customer, and see how your competition functions. You can see how firm their prices are by testing the negotiation ground, and you can even see if they throw any incentives your way to close a sale. You can ask them absolutely anything about their strategy – as long as you act like a customer – and gather all sorts of information that way.
